A History of the First Christians
Published on 1. January 2004
Book
Hardback
312 pages
978-0-567-08423-1 (ISBN)
Description
This work provides a survey of the history of the earliest Christian church in the period up to the fall of Jerusalem. It concentrates on: the figure of Paul; judicious and critical use of information in the Book of Acts; Judaizing versions of Christianity; and the Johannine tradition. The approach steers a middle way between an over-simplified account which fails to warn students where scholarly opinion is divided, and an in-depth academic study which attempts to document and discuss every hypothesis. Wedderburn focuses on aspects of central importance: the changing shape of church life and developing Christianity in relation to the Roman Empire and to Judaism. This book seeks to draw together and make more readily accessible many new insights gained from an enormous range of recent scholarly studies in German and English, and places them in the context of a more general account.
Reviews / Votes
'For some years students have lacked a good textbook on the first decades of Christianity. Professor Wedderburn has now met that lack... He weighs the evidence and the debates with a judicious even-handedness. This is a book which is thoroughly accessible to those with little specialist knowledge, which will provide an authoritative guide to current debates on Christianity's beginnings and which, more important, will give a clearer grasp of the historical complexities of these beginnings.' --James D. G. Dunn, Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham Review ~ International Review of Biblical Studies, vol 51, 2004/05 Review in German in Theologische Literaturzeitung 131 (2006) * Theologische Literaturzeitung *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
523 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-567-08423-1 (9780567084231)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alexander J. M. Wedderburn is Professor of New Testament in the Evangelisch-Theologische Facultat, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.
Content
Foreword 1. Introduction When to Stop? A Fragmentary StorySources - The Pauline Letters - The Book of Acts 2. The First Beginnings Appearances of the Risen Jesus Regrouping in Jerusalem? Pentecost A Jewish Group? 3. Stephen and His Group 'Hebrews' and 'Hellenists' The Problem and It's Solution Stephen The Outbreak of Persecution 4. The Spread of Christianity Samaria Antioch Peter and Cornelius Peter 5. Paul-The Hidden Years The Pre-Christian Paul The Conversion of PaulreturnBefore the Conference in Jerusalem 6. Agreement and Strife Pauline Chronology - Acts and galatians - An Absoloute Chronology 7. Paul the Missionary The Course of Paul's Missionary work The Nature of the Pauline Communities The Problems of the Pauline Communities The Collection 8. Judaizing Christianity James Writings of a Judaizing Christianity The Jerusalem Church 9. Pauline Christianity afetr Paul A Pauline School or Pauline Schools? 'Early Catholicism'? 10 Johanine Christianity 11. The Church in the Roman Empire Postscript Abbreviations Select Bibliography 1Primary Sources 2 Reference Work 3 Geberal Works on the History of Earliest Chrstianity 4 Other secondary Literature Index of Primary Sources Old Testament Other Jewish Sources New Testament Other Early Christian Literature and Gnostic Sources Other Graeco-Roman Literature and Sources Index of Authors (Secondary Literature) Index of Subjects